Smuggler's Legacy

by Bradford Bates

  “I’ll have to call it in.”

  “See that you do, and while you’re talking to your superiors, why don’t you start leading us in the direction of the Temple of Bones.”

  “I’m not a fucking tour guide,” he groused.

  “Listen pal, I don’t want to be on this shithole of a world any more than you want me here. But for me to leave, I have to complete the job that I was hired to do. Plus, you don’t want to be stuck out here all day, right? So help me get to where I need to go, and maybe you’ll be at home in time for dinner.”

  The guard turned away from me. “Fuck off.” He started walking away. The other guard stayed in position waiting for the other half of our group to leave.

  The only thing I could think of was that the guard didn’t want to be seen giving us an inch, but he also wanted to get back to his life instead of being stuck out in the wet guarding a bunch of armed mercenaries. So he walked, and I followed. Gabe moved slightly towards the right, and Maze took position to my left. I didn’t see Samantha move, but I felt the brush of air as she surged past me to get into position behind the guards. I could only hope that he was leading us closer to the destination and not further away from where we needed to go just to fuck with us.

  It felt like we had been walking for hours, but it couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. The dirty misty rain had combined into some kind of sludge that made walking through it almost like sinking in quicksand. The gummy grime pulled at my boots with every step, hoping to suck them from my feet, leaving me standing in a pile of the vile shit. I was already coated in the stuff up to my knees and thinking it might just be easier to throw these clothes out than to get this substance off of them.

  On top of being coated in never-ending sludge, there was the smell. There was no way that fucking stink was ever coming out of these clothes completely. Even a master of today’s best dry-cleaning chemicals couldn’t make that happen. If they could, I’d seriously consider dropping the church and worshipping them. And since we were here for Ice, I didn’t have anyone I could stick with the replacement bill.

  The guard in front of us started to slow down, but I didn’t see the temple anywhere. If this guy had just led us on a little goose chase, I might just shoot him regardless of the consequences. Damn, this place was making me irritable. We needed to find Ice’s brother Nick and get this over with so I could get back to flying around and making the kind of trouble I loved getting paid for.

  My hand started to reach down to the pistol holstered on my hip when I felt Maze touch my back. Her arm extended past me down the main street to our north. There in the distance, I could just make out a building that was taller than the rest. The guard hadn’t led us straight to the temple, not with the cameras watching his every move but he’d gotten us close enough to get there on our own. I gave him a slight nod and motioned for Maze to join me as we walked up the street.

  The rain didn’t necessarily part around the building, but the mist seemed to lessen as we approached. It made it easier to see just what was in front of us. The building rose three stories above the squat grey structures around it, but that wasn’t what made it stand out. The other buildings we had encountered had small bone insignias over the doors, but this entire structure was covered with them.

  Human skulls had been stacked to create four towering pillars that led to the giant arched doorway. The rest of the building seemed to be covered in the larger bones of the human body. As we reached the building, I could see that the smaller finger and toe bones had been used to fill in the gaps. It was macabre, but so were the lives of these people. When the mine collapsed, everyone in the community suffered, this was their way of honoring the dead.

  A quick look at the crew told me they were feeling some of the same emotions that I was. A little bit of awe mixed with a sprinkle of dread. All of us had our own run ins with creepy cults over the years, and none of them had turned out well. If they had taken Ice’s brother, then I didn’t hold out much hope for him. It would be pretty damn easy to just work a few new bones into the structure, voila, the body is gone. I had my doubts that anyone would even notice the difference.

  The door to the temple opened as we approached. At first I thought it was a damned creepy way to greet people. It was the kind of thing you would do to put people on edge or to make unwanted visitors shy away. Then parishioners started to exit the building, and I realized it had nothing to do with our arrival. I motioned for the crew to step back so we didn’t impede the progress of the people filing out of the temple.

  It gave me another chance to look over the crew. Maze had a look of faint disgust on her face, while Samantha seemed to be standing in awe of what they had done. Gabe was wearing a huge smile like he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Made me think it was time to get him away from those damn fantasy games he was playing.

  The parishioners that were leaving all looked content. It reminded me of the people I saw leaving church every Sunday growing up. They were happy to be with each other and their God, but also happy when the service was finally over so that they could get back to their regularly scheduled lives. All of the people I could see now were smiling and chatting amicably. A few curious glances were tossed in our direction, but no one broke ranks to come and speak with us. Not even to inquire what we were doing here.

  As the crowd started to thin, I motioned for everyone to follow me and made my way up the stairs to the entrance. Here the bones had been worn down by the hundreds of feet that walked across them on a daily basis. I wasn’t sure how I felt about walking on the bones of dead miners, but there was no other way to get inside. With some effort I tore my gaze away from where I was stepping and looked back up towards the large doors.

  The doors were starting to swing closed so I picked up the pace. I felt something brush by me on the right and then saw Samantha standing in the doorway leaning against one of them making sure we had time to make it inside before they closed. A man in grey robes was approaching her with a look of concern on his face. The rest of us made it inside, and then the doors snapped shut behind us.

  “I’m sorry friends, but services have been concluded for the day.” The man’s smile stretched across his face, almost making him look like one of the skulls decorating the building. His tone was one of slight condescension. It was the kind of voice people use when they were speaking to a wayward child. “If you will please follow me, I’ll escort you to another exit.”

  It probably wouldn’t be bad to know where another exit was because the doors behind us were closed, and I didn’t see another way to open them. They must have been operated by some kind of machinery, and yet I hadn’t heard anything as they closed.

  I tried to ignore the way the man had spoken to us. He was used to dealing with members of his flock. Still, it was harder than I thought it would be to keep my voice light and my body language agreeable. I almost hoped this man would push me over the edge since I already felt like hitting him. “Actually, we have a few questions. Is there someone that we can speak to?”

  “I can see that you’re not from around here, so I am willing to cut you some slack, but we don’t talk to outsiders. Not ever.”

  A second man in grey was approaching as I answered him. “Since hospitality is off the table,” I gave him a wink, “let’s get right down to business. We are looking for someone, and word on the street is that you know just where he is.”

  The second man in grey robes stopped beside the first and placed a hand out to stop him from speaking. “Brother Reginald, I see that we have some guests.”

  “That we do, Father Thomas,” he said making a slight bow.

  Father Thomas held out his hand to me. “You must forgive our rudeness. It’s not often that we entertain guests from off world. If you would follow me, I would be more than happy to try and assist you.”

  I shook the man’s hand, and it was ice cold. “That would be perfect.”

  The man called Reginald walked away as Father Thomas motio
ned for us to follow him. “Normally, I would ask you to remove your weapons, but you don’t seem like the type of folks that would comply even if you are in a house of worship.”

  I shot Maze a quick look when the father’s back was turned. Our eyes met, and we were instantly on the same page. It had to be a trap of some kind. I’d be happy if it wasn’t, but we hadn’t stayed alive this long by not being completely paranoid. I gave a signal with my hand, and I knew that Gabe and Samantha would be ready for anything.

  “I appreciate that you are willing to accommodate us.” Father Thomas didn’t respond verbally. Instead he let out a little sigh and continued leading us deeper into the building. He obviously wasn’t feeling as accommodating as he wanted us to believe.

  The temple itself reminded me of most of the churches I had seen in my life, the main difference being the lack of stained glass windows and the light streaming into the chapel. Ok, so that wasn’t exactly the main difference. I’d never actually attended a church where the pews were made out of bone. If I didn’t like walking on the remains of the fallen miners, I sure as shit didn’t want to have to sit my ass on them to have a conversation with Father Thomas. Instead of a cross on the pulpit, they had a circle made out of bones with either a star or an X in it. It was hard to tell because each one was slightly different based off of the bones they used to make it.

  This place was seriously creepy. It kind of reminded me of the historical vid I watched called House of a Thousand Corpses. Man, people back then used to have some screwed up ideas about horror. Taking another look around the church, I started to think that maybe they had actually done things right back then. I’d still prefer to keep all of the houses built out of corpses in the movies, instead of having to walk through them into some kind of trap.

  I motioned behind me with two fingers held towards the ground and then pointed to the right. Two more of the grey-clad monks had started to follow us behind the bone pillars on that side of the church. I heard a cough from behind that sounded suspiciously like the word left and looked back to see Samantha tapping three fingers against the strap of her rifle.

  Well fuck, I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t actually be a trap. It was so much easier to question people when they weren’t dead, and the people that lived around the temple probably wouldn’t be too happy with us if we killed their priests. The last thing we needed was for the miners themselves to start coming after us. We didn’t come here to kill innocent people, but we also didn’t come here to die.

  The priest stopped by the pulpit leaving the four of us standing in the open area in front of the first row of pews. “Now tell me what I can help you with?”

  I pulled out a picture of Ice’s brother that I had swiped from her parents’ house. “We’re looking for this man. His name is Nick, and we’ve been told the last place he was seen was here in your temple.” It was a slight exaggeration of the facts, but I wanted to try and gauge his reaction.

  “I’ve never seen the man myself, but he looks like the sort that would be up to causing more trouble than he was worth.” The priest gave a gentle shrug of his shoulders. “If there isn’t anything else?” He made a gesture towards a door just behind him and to the right side of the pulpit.

  I looked at the picture of Nick that I had stolen. Sure, he looked like a hard ass, but what miner didn’t. The man grew up hauling shit out of a hole in the planet and was raised by a man that looked like he ate rocks for dinner. More trouble than he was worth sounded like more of an omission of guilt than a statement about someone you didn’t know.

  “Of course we would be happy to go, right after we finish taking a look around.”

  Gabe and Samantha each dropped to a knee their rifles raised covering the sides of the church. Maze kept her rifle on her back but had one pistol covering the priest in front of us, and another pointed towards the door the priest had motioned for us to go through. I hadn’t pulled out a weapon yet. There was a chance we could still salvage this. Plus I was wondering what kind of weapons these priests would use in their own church. Shooting a bunch of priests only armed with knives or clubs wasn’t a prospect that I relished.

  The priest hadn’t moved, but when he looked up his eyes were bright with a feverish intensity that could only be found in one of the devoted. “You think you can make your demands here.” He stood and spread his arms wide as if he planned on giving the entire temple a hug. “In this place? Only Jervonis issues orders in this temple.”

  “Then let me speak with him.”

  “You will have that opportunity soon enough.” The priest dove behind the pulpit and shots rang out from the sides of the room.

  “Take cover!” I shouted, but there was no need. My team had already moved into the pews using them to hide until they saw an opportunity to return fire. This wasn’t going anything like I had expected, and I was pretty damn sure the gunfire and blaster bolts could be heard outside of the church. That meant we didn’t have long before someone showed up to help.

  Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, Ice’s voice came over the comm. “Captain, we have a problem.”

  “Fuck.” As if I didn’t have enough problems of my own.

  Chapter 18

  Ice

  It had never been a goal of mine to take my current girlfriend to meet an ex, but in this case, I was pretty comfortable with it. It helped that Sally Kim had moved on. Not only moved on to a new relationship but moved on to being married with three kids. When we were together, I never would have guessed that she played both sides of the field, but then again a woman on this planet needed to do whatever she could to survive.

  “So tell me about her,” Kyra asked almost too nonchalantly.

  I grabbed her hand and held it. Fuck anyone that wanted to judge us for being who we were. Despite my feelings of defiance, I felt my hand sweating gently, and I was very aware of the guard behind us and the people we passed on the street.

  “Sally was my first girlfriend. So she’s kind of special.” I watched Kyra’s face for any hint as to what she was feeling, but she kept her gaze ahead as I tugged her gently through the streets. “I haven’t spoken to her in ten years. Not until I asked her to put up the contract for us…”

  “If she was that important to you, how could you just leave her behind?”

  That was the real question, wasn’t it? If you cared for someone let them go was something I had heard once, but it was utter bullshit. I cared for Sally, and I had never wanted to let her go, but then the mission I was on went sideways. Once that happened, it wasn’t right to drag her into my problems. I could never come home, and she was better off without me. At least that is what I told myself so I could sleep easier.

  No one really wants to live a life on the run. It’s fucking exhausting, and yet I would have with her. Knowing what I know now about the verse, I was sure that we could have made it work. It hadn’t taken me too long to forge a new identity and set up shop as a hacker. Of course, that was after I ran to the edges of the universe to get away from the men that were chasing me. It hadn’t helped one bit. They found me, and without Drake’s help I would have wound up dead.

  Kyra was waiting for my answer. “It wasn’t easy, not at first. I told myself that she was better off without me.” I looked at the ground not wanting Kyra to see the pain in my eyes. “And she was.”

  “So you might have some unresolved personal matters that need to be resolved with her?”

  In other words, did I still have feelings for her? Yeah, I guess I did. Our relationship had been cut short and not by choice, at least that was what I still liked to believe. I had to stay away to keep her safe. Even going to see her now made me uncomfortable, but I had to see her, if for no other reason than to apologize for my actions.

  I had something good with Kyra, something special. I wasn’t going to put that at risk just to relive a fling from the past. “That ship sailed a long time ago, Kyra. Sally and I will never be what we used to be.” I pulled her tightly agai
nst my side and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as we continued to walk. “Oh, and I have you now. Let’s not forget about that.”

  She bumped her shoulder into mine, and a smile lit her face for the first time since we left my childhood home. “I love you, babe.”

  “And I love you right back.” This time I tugged her hand forward as I pulled her towards our destination. I didn’t feel like talking. I felt like getting there, finding out what we could, and then heading back to wherever the captain was as fast as humanly possible. We needed to find Nick. That was all that mattered.

  Sally’s house came into view. It was the same shitty dump on the outside as my parents’ place. They really needed to do something to brighten up this world. Everything was covered in grey muck from the misty rain, so a little color would go a long way towards making this place a little less depressing. I’d only been home for a few hours, and already I didn’t care if I never saw this planet again.

  When we were about ten feet away from the front door I spun towards our shadow. “You can wait here.” The guard looked like he wanted to argue, but I didn’t give him the chance. Lacing my arm through Kyra’s, I turned and headed for the door.

  Sally opened the door after the first knock. “Barbara, it’s good to see you.” She moved to the side to let us in.

  “Thanks, Sally. It’s good to see you too.” I gave her a quick hug.

  Sally turned her gaze on Kyra, taking all of her in, almost in the same hungry way that used to drive me wild. “And who is this lovely lady?”

  “I’m Kyra,” she said extending her hand.

  Sally swatted her hand away and pulled her into a hug. I could have been wrong, but she might have even sniffed her hair for a second. “Well, aren’t you adorable.”

  I didn’t know why she was talking about Kyra like she was five. Kids are adorable, my woman, she was fucking hot. “I just wanted to ask you a few questions, and then we will get out of your hair.”